Can Media Violence Make Kids Violent?

By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album
Reviewed by Kate Fogarty, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida

My mom, who is over 70, often tells the story of the first time she saw a television show (a Western) as a child. The show depicted the characters shooting at each other. With no experience of TV, she thought what she was seeing was real, and started to cry.

Screentime Can be Hard to Monitor

This story may seem quaint and outdated today. However, televised or screen violence can still be upsetting, confusing, or agitating to young people. When our children are toddlers and preschoolers, we often try hard to shield them from images of violence on the screen. But as they get older, the barrage of media content becomes hard to monitor or contain. With peer pressure being what it is, it may be difficult to set limits.

Screen Violence Linked to Real-Life Aggression in Kids

Parents who feel confused or uncertain regarding media violence and older children may be interested in the results of a new large study. Over 5000 diverse 10- and 11-year-olds from different cities and their parents were asked how much TV, video game, and music listening time the kids got daily, and how violent the content was. Children were also asked how often they’d hurt, hit, pushed, or threatened to harm another person in the last 30 days.

On average, these children reported watching about 22 hours of TV, playing about 12 hours of video games, and listening to about 9 hours of music in a typical week. Of course, some had far more exposure to violence across these media formats, and some less.

The researchers found that children who saw more violent content reported being more violent with other children and adults. Overall time spent playing video games and listening to music was also linked to more violent behavior. But simply spending more time watching TV overall was not associated with more violent behavior.

Other Factors Don’t Explain the Link

The researchers took many influences in these children’s lives into account, including family income, parents’ education level, race and ethnicity, and issues like child depression and behavioral problems. They also considered how safe the children’s neighborhoods were and whether families had been exposed to domestic violence.

Even with all these influences factored in, the association between viewing violent content and behaving violently towards other people remained strong. (However, and concerningly, childhood depression was even more strongly associated with violent behavior, reminding us of the importance of assessing for and treating this problem.)

It’s worth pointing out that some children who act out physically may be drawn to violent media, so it’s hard to tell for sure what causes what. Still, this study—and others like it in the past—suggest a possible linkage.

Tools for Parents

If you’re concerned about what your child is exposed to, there’s help. Pay attention to rating systems on TV shows, movies, and games, and use technology to block or restrict certain programming if that seems appropriate for your family. Preview media ahead of time if you’re uncertain about it, and/or watch with your child to discuss any questionable content and provide your take on it. Common Sense Media has detailed information and suggested age ratings for hundreds of TV shows, movies, and games, with parent reviews provided as well. This article from UF-IFAS EDIS includes many important resources for parents who want to learn more about the content their children see, such as info from the FCC and the motion picture industry. Visit Further Reading for more.

(Photo credit: kids watching a movie at the party – MG 1412.JPG by Sean Dreilinger. CC BY-NC-SA. Resized.)

Further Reading:

Making Good Decisions: Parenting Strategies to Guide Young Children’s Media Use

Common Sense Media

Control with Cable

FCC Parents

TV Guidelines

From the American Academy of Pediatrics: Media Violence

Center for Media Literacy

 

References:

Cooker, T. R., et al. (2014). Media violence exposure and physical aggression in fifth-grade children. Academic Pediatrics. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2014.09.008

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Posted: December 18, 2014


Category: Relationships & Family, Work & Life
Tags: Health And Wellness, Parenting


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